| The training of flight crew members in general, and pilots in particular, is an expensive, time consuming, and often dangerous process. Training techniques which reduce cost, time and danger are highly desirable. Flight crews are furnished by the manufacturer with manuals and checklists which set out in detail the operational procedures for the safe and efficient operation of the equipment, but systems training for aircrews has largely ignored these checklists in the classroom training environment.;Two aircraft fuel systems presentations were prepared and videotaped in the Cessna Training Center of FlightSafety, International, in Wichita. The presentations were identical in every respect, except that the experimental presentation was driven by the checklist referring to the fuel system, and as a consequence, discussed each fuel system checklist item in the course of the presentation. Subjects were asked to view either the experimental or the control presentation, and to complete a 16 response Likert-type questionnaire.;Analysis of the data revealed a significant relationship between type of presentation and perception of learning of specific tasks, but demonstrated no significant preference for presentation type. A low negative relationship was noted between type of presentation and perception of immediacy of application.;A significant correlation between responses and certain demographic factors suggest that the checklist driven instructional concept may be better suited for initial training than for recurrent training.;This study attempts to determine if increased use of the checklist in the classroom would result in information being presented in a format which is perceived by the learner to be more immediately applicable in the normal, abnormal and emergency operation of the aircraft systems. Additionally, student's perceptions of correlation of curriculum to sequence of tasks, proportion of "need to know" to "nice to know" information, completeness and adequacy of training and future applicability of the training were explored. Finally, an attempt was made to measure the student's overall satisfaction with training as a process, and to inquire as to his confidence in the checklist as a source of valid data from which to operate the aircraft. |
